112 FROZEN PLANTS. 



physiology the elucidation of what is obscure in that of vegetables. 

 It is true that we then abandon the pursuit of flist causes, and confess 

 the vanity of that curiosity which nothing can satisfy ; but we exchange 

 rationalism for materialism, and we learn how to apply experience to 

 daily uses. 



It is an axiom in animal physiology, that "the general effect of cold 

 on living bodies is a diminution of vital activity, which terminates, if 

 the cold be intense, and its application continued, in death." (Pereira.) 

 Hence it is to be inferred, that all living things whatsoever must finally 

 perish beneath the influence of cold, provided it is severe enough, and 

 prolonged enough. But living things have each their separate consti- 

 tutional vitality, the power of which in resisting cold differs between 

 species and species, or variety and variety, and even between individual 

 and individual. It is a peculiarity derived from the great source of all 

 things ; a reality ; inexplicable but indisputable ; Hke light, and heat, 

 and electricity. We see it manifested among plants between the yellow 

 and the spider Ophrys, and the Tea Kose and the China Rose; as 

 among animals between the ass and the zebra, the Negro and 

 the Esquimaux, the terrier and the Italian greyhound. The moment 

 we admit this principle, the mode of dealing with cold in gardens 

 becomes analogous to that which experience teUs us is effectual in the 

 animal world. When a man is frozen, if he is suddenly thawed, he 

 dies, or Ms Umbs drop off; and so of frozen plants; nothing brings 

 them such certain death as a sudden elevation of temperature. AVhen 

 the French retreated from Moscow, frozen noses and limbs were common, 

 but immediate rubbing them with snow removed the tendency to 

 congelation, and hence it became a practice for the unhappy men to 

 look narrowly after each other's noses ; for each could see his neighbour's 

 although he could neither feel nor see his own. As long ago as the 

 days of Hippockaxes it was known that a man who had had his feet 

 frozen, lost them if plunged into warm water. It is exactly the same 

 among plants ; it is certain that a frozen plant, though tender, wUl not 

 perish if it is gradually thawed, by being watered plentifully with cold 

 water. Thus early Peas, Kidney Beans, and the like, are often saved by 

 merely giving them a good watering the first thing in the morning 

 before the sun is on them. It is asserted, and we doubt not with 

 perfect truth, that wall trees, whose blossoms have been frozen, have 

 had their crop saved by copiously syringing before sunrise. In aU 

 these cases it is, however, indispensable that the artificial thawing be 

 practised before the solar rays can fall upon the object frozen ; the 

 sudden elevation of temperature, necessarily produced by morning 

 sunbeams, renders all after-applications useless. And hence it is that 

 the need of artificial thawing is altogether removed by planting tender 

 things at the back of north or west walls, or behind screens. In such 

 situations, sudden changes of temperature will not occur; but the 



